The War of the Worlds takes its name and libretto from Orson Welles' 1938 radio broadcast, which blurred the lines between news reporting and storytelling. Through Yuval's libretto and direction, Gosfield updates this drama's focus on media, technology, and broadcasting by placing three of the main characters at remote "siren" locations interspersed througout the city, as well as incorporating radio sounds into her composition. Gosfield has worked extensively with radios in her compositional work, including Long Waves and Random Pulses, for violin and jammed radio signals. Check it out below.

The War of the Worlds will be published by PSNY after its premiere. Check back soon for the full score!

Gosfield's The Blue Horse Walks on the Horizon, which was commissioned and premiered by the Jaspers in 2010, was inspired by the radio broadcasts, encryption methods and secret codes used by European resistance groups during World War II. The work's title references one of the statements broadcast from the British to the French Resistance in their "messages personnels" radio program ("Le cheval bleu se promène sur l'horizon"), and which Gosfield uses as a rhythmic basis for the work's opening figure. The new album, released on New Amsterdam Records, also includes an excerpt of Hearne's Law of Mosaics, as well as works by Caroline Shaw, Missy Mazzoli, Judd Greenstein, David Lang and Donnacha Dennehy.

Following performances of Hearne's politically-charged cantata Sound from the Bench in Philadelphia, Boston and New York, The Crossing's new album (released by Cantaloupe Music) features the first recording of that work alongside new recordings of Hearne's Consent, Ripple and Privilege.

Donald Nally, who leads The Crossing, notes that Hearne's works on the album are "fundamentally about asking questions—questions about the world we live in, about art, and about language and music." The album, containing some of Hearne's most adventurous works to date, demonstrates his socially conscious approach to composition and his goal to "bring the chaotic forces of life into the work itself." Listen to a sample of Hearne's Consent: